Overcoming your fears

As you’ll know if you read the first instalment of Scaling The Squiggle, Amazing If begin 5 years ago in October 2013. Yet it was only in the last few months that it’s become my full time role. Someone asked me recently why I didn’t make the move sooner and I thought it was a really good question. I know so many people who would like to take a leap but don’t have the confidence to do so. It’s not all easy (definitely something I’ll cover in a future post!), but I’m thoroughly enjoying the freedom and ability to achieve that running Amazing If full time provides.

As I reflect on my own journey from side-project co-founder to full-time CEO, there were 2 main factors which stopped me moving sooner. I thought these barriers and the subsequent actions I took to overcome them, may be useful if you have ever entertained thoughts of a pivot towards self-employment but found something was stopping you.

The thoughts that held me back

The first big challenge for me was how much time I had invested in my corporate career and the limiting belief that by stepping away from working for big brands I would lose some of my identity (this is known as the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ and is a common issue which affects the quality of decision making). I was carrying around a Confidence Gremlin that my status and success was dependant on the brands I worked for and that without them, my career would suffer. I also loved working with these brands, learning from them and building relationships with the people within them. They inspired me to be my best.

Who was I without them?

The second challenge was money. This was significant for me. I couldn’t see a route to my side project being able to come close to my corporate salary. I would have to change my lifestyle in ways I wasn’t comfortable with and my family life would also suffer as a result of my career decision. It seemed like an unsurmountable issue.

These 2 reasons of ‘success and salary’ created a compelling blocker to career change.

I was stuck in a trap of my own creation.

At some point, I realised that the longer I stayed in my corporate roles, the bigger the challenge was becoming. I enjoyed and was good at what I did and was becoming more senior. This led to me spending more and more time at work (and therefore less time on Amazing If) and earning more money. A nice problem to have you might think, but it made any thought of moving to Amazing If full time more of an issue.

The truth was that moving to self-employment was only going to get harder the longer I stayed and it was this insight led me to take action, changing my perspective and enabling me to move forward.

The action I took

It was my assumptions around status and success that I tackled first. I realised that time invested in building my own brand (writing for Marketing Week for example and speaking at events), made my success less dependent on the companies I worked for. Whether it was true or not, it felt that way and that gave me confidence. Secondly, I realised I was still connected to and learning from great brands and businesses like MoneySuperMarket Group and Uber, but instead of working for them as an employee, I was working with them as a service provider. Actually, I began to realise this was far preferable. I got to do what I loved, with brands I loved (without a lot of the meetings and operational ‘stuff’ that often slows you down at work)!

On the money front, I knew this wasn’t just about mindset, I had bills to pay. My business partner was fantastic at unlocking this issue. She suggested that we took some of the savings we had accumulated over 5 years of operating as a side project to pay me a reduced salary for 6 months. We knew that if we couldn’t generate any additional work in 6 months, then employing me full time wasn’t viable. I also investigated opportunities to consult with some organisations to provide additional income, making my 6 month fund last longer. When I was in my notice period, I proactively started setting up these consultancy opportunities and working in the evening so I had something to move into. Around this time, I saw a quote that really resonated with me....

“ Speak what you seek, until you see what you said”

And so, I started telling people that I was leaving Microsoft to scale our business and then, a funny thing happened. All of the networks we had been building over the last 5 years started to respond to this news. New projects came our way and we pitched for bigger opportunities than we would have had the capacity to fulfil.  All of a sudden, we had a full diary of work for the next 5 months with people and organisations that felt like a brilliant culture match.

And that is where I find myself right now. Over the next few months, we have a book manuscript to finish, exciting work with brands that make me so proud to work with, expansion into Amsterdam with a regional team (more on that soon!), a new website, new look and feel, online courses and the launch of online coaching! We also have a rapidly growing podcast audience. Wow! With hindsight, I’m not sure I would have moved sooner, but I would have taken a lot more confidence in my ability to make the transition. So, if scaling a side-project or self-employment is a Career Possibility you could see yourself exploring in the future, here are my top tips to increase your confidence in making the move:

1.    Use the time you have now to test and finesse your product and your proposition, you’ll want to move at pace when you make the leap.

2.    Build a start-up fund to pay yourself for 3-6 months, you’ll want to get into the habit of building a surplus in the business anyway, so it’s good practice.

3.    Speak what you seek, people can’t help you and opportunities won’t come to you if you don’t articulate this with confidence.

4.    Invest time in building a diverse network of people you can help and learn from, this will be a source of support, advice and hopefully work in the future.

5.    Build your profile around your side project expertise and communities around your content, this will create advocacy which will help you to scale.

I hope that has been of some help. I’ll be back next month to share more of our 'Scaling the Squiggle' journey,

Helen